The present invention relates to the manufacture of brushes in general, and more particularly to improvements in a method and apparatus for feeding bristles to the station at which groups of tufts of bristles are inserted into the body of a brush.
It is known to apply pressure to the supply or stack of bristles from which a transfer element removes tufts for delivery to the inserting tool or tools. In accordance with a presently known proposal, a weight is placed on top of the stack of bristles is an upright magazine so that the lowermost layer of bristles in the magazine bears against the transfer element. The weight (e.g., a metallic body weighing between 2 and 5 kg) is manipulated by the attendant. Repeated lifting of the weight is tiresome to the attendant, especially to a female employee. Moreover, the admission of a fresh supply of bristles into the magazine requires a substantial amount of skill because, while the weight is lifted, the attendant must insert a fresh batch of bristles and must simultaneously apply manual pressure against the remainder of the stack in order to insure that the remnant of the preceding stack will descend into the range of the transfer element. Such manipulation of the bristle feeding apparatus is likely to result in injury to the hands of a semiskilled, unskilled or careless attandant, i.e., the hand which applies pressure against the top of the stack in the magazine is likely to advance into the range of the rapidly moving transfer element. Still further, even a highly skilled person is unable to insure continuous application of substantially unchanged pressure during refilling of the magazine.
It was also proposed to replace the weight with semiautomatic pressure applying mechanisms, particularly with pneumatic cylinder and piston units. Such mechanisms insure the application of uniform pressure to the supply of bristles in the magazine; however, they must be deactivated prior to admission of a fresh supply of bristles which are introduced into the magazine in the same way as described above.